The Writer’s Journey 2017: Breaking In And Managing A Career In Hollywood

In The Writer’s Journey panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2017, Utah Mohammed, Tony Puryear and Brandon Easton shared their wisdom on how to break into the writing scene — be it TV, comics, novels, or film.

Brandon started the panel off by listing three hashtags: #writersjourney, #scriptchat and #tvwriterchat. He explained if you spend time on Twitter, these can be a great way to get information if you are interested in breaking in. He then took a poll of the audience by a raise of hands to see who wanted to write novels, write TV shows, or comic books.

He explained that this panel would not talk so much about idea generation, but how you can take material you’ve already developed in a position to get more attention for your writing career. The importance of social media presence and identity, all you really need is a computer and patience.

Brandon introduced the panel:

Ubah Mohammed was a staff writer on ABC’S Mistress and currently a writer on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Tony Puryear wrote The Eraser, was accepted in Disney’s writers program, and worked with Will Smith and Oliver Stone.

Geoffrey Thorne has written for Law & Order:Criminal Intent, Ben 10: Ultimate, Star Trek, Titans and was a writer/producer on TNT’S Leverage.

The panel’s host, Brandon Easton wrote the reboot of Thundercats, was in the 2015 Disney/ABC writers program and was a writer on Marvel’s Agent Carter.

The most important one thing Easton wanted to stress was the paradigm shift from being “aspiring to being professional.”

The more times you complain about something you are giving them free advertising. The more times it shows up, the higher it appears on search engines. The trick is that if you want to complain about something, ignore it!

Five points Branson said marked a professional writer are:

1. Make time to create, under any circumstances.

2. Make sure your projects are done before attempting an interview.

3. Have business cards.

4. If you’re lucky enough to connect with someone further along in their career, learn the delicate policies of following up and the constraints of other people’s lives.

5. Do considerable research into the business — understanding how a business operates is key.

Take the first five pages of a popular writer’s work and see what makes it interesting. Read the first chapter to see why readers are hooked on it.

Story Development

Three books that did more to understand story development than any classes:

Stephen King‘s On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft

Writing the TV Drama Series by Pamela Diamond

Writers on Comics Script-writing by Peter David

Thorne notes that writers should do industry research by checking Variety, Deadline Hollywood and The Hollywood Reporter. It will give them information on how the industry operates, what the executives are up to.

Publishers Weekly is basically the Time Magazine of the novel industry.

Valuable Forums/Sites

Absolute. Write Forum literature

Done Deal – Screenwriting

TV writer Podcast

IMDB Pro-Listings

Studio System-Advance listing

Brandon closed the Writer’s Journey panel with a screening of a short film he had written.

Prouldy serving as TV Editor, Ray started with Bleeding Cool in 2013 as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought aboard as staff in 2017. Counting John Cusack as his pop culture "spirit animal," his "word fu" stays strong as he continues trying really hard to be the sheppard...